DEVELOPERS LEERY OF WETLANDS PLAN

By KEITH SCHNEIDER,

Published: September 2, 1991

SHADY SIDE, Md., Aug. 29—
The Bush Administration's proposal to ease restrictions and hasten the development of marshes and wet forests and meadows could have the opposite effect, consultants and state officials say.

In a series of recent announcements, the White House proposed a broad new policy for regulating at least 100 million acres of wetlands in the contiguous 48 states.

Across the country private engineering consultants, state officials and developers have been marching through forests and bogs to see how the new rules and definitions apply in actual field conditions.

Developers say they are leery because the new policy, which is open to public comment until October, would be the third significant change in Federal wetlands rules since 1987. Each change means new delays and alterations in the design of projects, a situation that can cost developers sizable amounts of money. Threat of Another Barrier

State officials say too much land would be opened to development under the White House proposal and vowed to battle the move by enforcing state rules more strictly, creating another barrier to development.

Private consultants hired to help developers define the boundaries of wetlands say they are concerned about how the new definitions in the White House proposal would be applied.

The White House says its new approach is intended to replace existing wetlands rules that were generating a wave of criticism across the country. The old policy, put into effect in January 1989, was so inclusive that millions of acres regarded as dry ground were suddenly defined as wetlands. Owners who wanted to sell the ground to developers or use it themselves found that they needed permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the states, a process that could take a year or two.

President Bush's advisers say the new policy balances the desires of conservationists to preserve such land in its natural state with the rights of property owners to do with their land as they see fit. Concern Over New Rules

But almost every private consultant and state wetlands expert interviewed said they were concerned about the new policy. State officials said the Administration is proposing such abrupt changes that state regulations no longer will be uniform with the Government's. Thus, even if projects satisfied Federal regulators, they could still be held up by state administrators using different rules.

All 23 coastal states in the contiguous United States have rules for protecting tidal marshes, and 18 states also have regulations for preserving inland freshwater wetlands, according to the Association of State Wetlands Managers in Berne, N.Y.

"Before this proposal, the states were moving in the direction of making their regulations consistent with the Federal Government's," said John A. Kusler, the executive director of the association. "Consistency is a big issue with developers, and we were making progress. Right now the states are dismayed by the Administration's proposals and are considering moving in their own direction."

The first state to study how much land would be affected by the new policy was Illinois. An inventory by the State Department of Conservation found that 608,000 acres of the 932,000 acres defined as wetlands in Illinois could be opened to development under the Administration's proposed rules.

Most of the threatened ground is wet forests and wooded bottom lands in southern Illinois that serve as breeding grounds and habitat for 40 percent of the endangered birds that migrate each year to the state.

"We believe a significant amount of the wetlands resources in our state are at risk," said Marvin Hubbell, the Illinois wetlands program administrator.

Other states have estimated that tens of millions of acres now protected as wetland would be opened to development, including bottom lands in the Missisippi Delta region and wet forests in the Midwest.

On the shores of Chesapeake Bay, the effect of the Administration's proposal is apparent. Just outside this bay town about 10 miles south of Annapolis, a six-acre forest of black oak, beech, sweet gum and black cherry that was defined as a wetland under the 1989 program would not be a wetland under the 1991 proposal, according to Milt McCarthy, a private wetland consultant from Upper Marlboro, Md.

Nearby, a 12-acre forest bordering a tidal marsh would also be open to development under the White House proposal. Experts from the state and private consultants say 400,000 to 800,000 acres of nontidal forests and fields in Maryland would be open to development under the new rules.

William K. Reilly, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said data about marginal wetlands were not good. "I am skeptical about any very precise numbers, but the comment period is intended to smoke out the best data people have."

Under the 1989 Federal policy, a wetland is any ground that has muck or peat-based soils, vegetation that can grow in wet conditions and water within 18 inches of the surface for at least seven days during the growing season.

The effect of the 1989 rules was to include as much land as possible for protection under wetlands rules, the principal reason it came under criticism from property owners.

The Administration's new definition is intended to exclude as much land as possible because if an area fails any of the three tests -- soil, vegetation or saturation -- it is not considered a wetland. But private consultants who help developers define wetland boundaries say it could, in some cases, make it harder to develop a wetland.

Developers are also upset because projects begun under the 1987 policy and altered at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to conform to the 1989 policy may have to be altered again.

Near Solomons Island, Md., about 40 miles south of here, a $5 million shopping center proposed by the Barrett-Krett Development Company has been in a state of flux because of the Government's changing policy.

The company bought 10 acres of forest in 1989 that Federal officials said included nearly six acres of wetland. The 84,000-square-foot shopping center planned for the space was reduced to 60,000 square feet to minimize the disturbance on what the Government defined as wetland.

The changes in design and the delays cost the company $600,000, said John R. Clark, a lawyer for Barrett-Krett. And the new rules may change everything again, he added. They may mean that most of the 10-acre tract is not wetland and that a bigger shopping center can be built there.

But, while the policy is being reviewed, the administrative work on the permit submitted by Barrett-Krett has been halted. "Everything is stopped dead," Mr. Clark said. "Talk about a black hole of regulation -- this wetlands program is just nuts."

Photo: Across the country forests and bogs are being examined since new Federal wetlands rules were proposed. Milt McCarthy, right, a private wetland consultant from Upper Marlboro, Md., and a partner, Kevin McCarthy, took a soil sample from a tidal marsh near the Chesapeake Bay. Hundreds of thousands of acres in Maryland would be open to development under the new rules. (Andrea Mohin for The New York Times)